


Holodeck Trouble

by StephaniD



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Gen, Holodecks/Holosuites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 11:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13433661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StephaniD/pseuds/StephaniD
Summary: Naomi Wildman makes her own holodeck program, but it malfunctions and she's trapped in the holodeck alone.





	Holodeck Trouble

They were limping on impulse power towards a class M planet that showed dilithium crystal deposits. They had been for two weeks. Replicator rations were in short supply and a few non-essential decks had been evacuated so they could save energy on life-support, but the Doctor and Neelix had convinced Captain Janeway that one holodeck could be powered for a few hours every other day. The crew members could participate in a lottery for a half hour's worth of time. 

“Ensign Wildman to Engineering.” B’elanna’s combadge relayed. It was supposed to be Wildman’s turn in the holodeck. B'elanna frowned as she tapped it to reply.  
“Torres here, I apologise if we don't have the power to run the holodeck but-”  
“Lieutenant, my daughter's trapped inside.” Samantha interrupted.  
“On it.” She checked her screens, they showed power going to the holodeck. “Wildman, I’m on my way.” She tapped her badge to close the channel. “Vorik, check for any abnormalities in the neural gel packs and report. I'll be at the holodeck if you need me.” She strode toward the turbolift. 

Samantha Wildman and Neelix were waiting by the holodeck when B’elanna arrived.  
“What happened?” She asked, scanning the exterior controls with her tricorder when they didn’t respond to her touch.  
“Naomi wanted to show me a program she'd made herself,” Neelix started, “she told me to close my eyes while she went in to make sure it was working correctly. A minute after I heard the door shut I opened my eyes to find the controls unresponsive. That's when I called Samantha.”  
“I let Naomi and Neelix use my holodeck time. This section of the ship experienced a brief power failure, but it seems to have knocked out the holodeck for longer, and we can't get Naomi on comms.” Samantha Wildman’s voice wavered, but she held her emotions in check.  
“The holodeck is drawing power, so the good news is she's not locked in there in the dark.” B'elanna told the pair. 

She tapped her combadge. “B’elanna to the Doctor.”  
“Doctor here.”  
“Doctor, could you try to transfer yourself to the holodeck? Right now Naomi Wildman's in there alone, and we have no communication or information on what's going on in there.”  
“Of course, one moment.” They waited. “Let me try again.” Samantha Wildman bit her lip and Neelix grabbed her hand. “The holodeck isn't responding to me.” The Doctor sighed. “Is there anything else I can do?”  
“Not right now, Doctor, thank you.” B'elanna closed the comms link and immediately opened another. “B'elanna to Vorik, anything to report?”  
“No abnormalities in the neural gel packs, ma'am. I checked the power logs and the holodeck underwent a soft reboot when it temporarily lost power. Previous to today, no-one tried to access it while it was rebooting.”  
“Is there any way to make it go faster, or open the doors early or anything?” B'elanna asked, frustrated. “Naomi Wildman is inside.”  
“I am aware, ma'am. I can cut power to the holodeck, the doors will be accessible approximately three minutes after, but before that the holodeck will be shutting down.” Vorik offered. B'elanna looked to Samantha Wildman.  
“Is there any other way? Anything else we can try?” She asked.  
“The holodeck will finish rebooting and be accessible in approximately 15 minutes. Until that time, all controls are inaccessible.”  
“Keep trying, Vorik.” B’elanna closed the channel. “Neither of you have any idea what Naomi was planning?” She asked Samantha and Neelix. They both shook their heads, but then Samantha tapped her combadge. 

“Ensign Wildman to Seven of Nine.”   
“Seven of Nine.”  
“Seven, Naomi’s trapped in the holodeck, she wanted to create her own program, do you have any idea what it could be?”  
“She has recently been asking many questions about Earth and my childhood, animals in particular. I’m afraid I cannot be any more specific than that. Can I be of any assistance?”  
“I don’t think so, Seven, but thank you.” Samantha closed the channel and called the Doctor, asking him the same question, but he couldn’t help provide any details either. “All I can think is that she might have worked on it on our computer, but by the time I got to our quarters and got back here, the holodeck would be fully booted up.” Samantha sighed. 

“Computer, how long until the holodeck is accessible?” Neelix asked.   
“Approximately 11 minutes.”  
“How long until comms work in the holodeck?”  
“Approximately 5 minutes.”  
“How long until holodeck information is visible on exterior controls?” Samantha asked.  
“Currently available.” The computer replied, and the blonde quickly reached for the panel.  
“Safeties are on, thank goodness.” She relayed with a sigh of relief. “The program is called ‘Naomi 01’.”  
“Not very descriptive, but it is logical.” Neelix commented. They anxiously waited until the holodeck booted up enough for comms signals to pass in and out. 

“Naomi?” Samantha tried her combadge again.   
“Mom!”  
“I'm here, honey.”  
“I can't open the doors.”  
“There was a power fluctuation, the holodeck is still restarting. Are you alright?”  
“Yeah. It was scary when it happened, but I'm okay now. My program is working!”  
“I can't wait to see.” Samantha smiled and wiped an eye. B’elanna patted her shoulder and headed back to Engineering. “It’s going to be another few minutes until the doors open, would it be okay if I ask the Doctor to try to enter?”  
“But I’m not hurt. And I wanted you and Neelix to see it first.”  
“Is it so bad if we see it second and third?”  
“Okay, he can come. Can Seven come, too?”  
“Astrometrics is shut down, so as long as she's not working on something else, I don't see why not.”  
“Thanks, Mom. I'm going to call her, you call the Doctor.”  
“Okay, Naomi.” Samantha chuckled. “Naomi?” No response. She'd ended the link. Neelix asked the Doctor to try again. A second later he reported that it worked. 

Naomi ran into her mother's arms when the holodeck doors opened and excitedly pulled her in.   
“Look!” She pointed. The floor looked and felt like a giant mattress. A pack of a dozen furred quadrupedal animals ran over, yapping and barking. “Earth dog babies!” She exclaimed, grinning.  
“They are called puppies.” The doctor corrected.  
“That's a golden retriever, that's a pit bull, that's a viszla, that's a vallhund…” Naomi was too excited to listen to any corrections.  
“They all look so different.” Neelix marveled, Naomi nodded.  
“Earth has many many different species in the canis genus, due to both the wide variety of climates, and early humans breeding them specifically for different traits. I chose breeds known for their intelligence.”  
“No Ktarian pets?” Samantha asked.  
“That's my next project. I wanted to make sure this would work before I tried something harder.” Naomi smiled. 

“I'm very proud, honey, but I have to report to the captain and go back to work.” Samantha stroked her daughter's hair.   
“What are you reporting to the captain?”  
“The fact that the holodeck is experiencing power failures. She'll probably want to shut it down to make sure we have enough power to keep the Doctor running.” She sighed, not liking having to prepare her child for bad news.  
“Can you please ask her if I can keep playing for the rest of the half hour? She can come play with the dog babies, too, if she wants!”  
“I’ll do my best, Naomi.” Samantha smiled and headed for the door. 

“Hello Ensign Wildman.”   
“Hello Seven, Naomi's waiting for you.”  
“Seven!” The girl cried as she ran over. “Now you can see if you like dogs! I made twelve of them!” She lead the woman over to where the Doctor and Neelix were sitting, puppies jumping on them and playing nearby.   
“Hello, Naomi. That seems rather a large number of dogs.”  
“Don't worry, they're just babies. They don't have any offensive or defensive traits. That's a viszla, that's a husky, that's a poodle...”  
“I see you didn't yet program an environment.” Seven noted.  
“That's not important. The important part is dog babies. I made the floor soft so it's nicer to sit on, and because sometimes babies fall. But the holodeck doesn't have to look like anything special, so I didn't make it.” She reasoned.  
“It is saving power.” Seven added. “And I believe baby dogs are referred to as puppies.”  
“I think I read that somewhere. Is it related to the pupal stage in insects?”  
“I don't believe so.” Seven looked down at a tug on her uniform to find a puppy pulling the fabric with its teeth. “Stop that.” She commanded.  
“Oh, baby.” Naomi picked up the puppy, laughing when it licked her face. Seven kicked a ball that was nearby and a few puppies chased after it. The Doctor apologized that he couldn't stay and play, but said he should return to Sick Bay and his mobile emitter in case the power fluctuated again. 

Captain Janeway cleared her throat as she entered the holodeck.   
“Captain!” Naomi stood straight.  
“At ease.” Janeway smiled as she walked over to the girl. “Thank you for the invitation, Naomi.” She pet a puppy who had come over to investigate. “I had a dog on Earth, and didn't realize how much I missed him until now.”  
“I'm sorry?”  
“Nothing to apologize for. In fact, I'm trying to say 'thank you’, I could have articulated it better. Thank you for allowing us to play with these puppies, and I hope you'll make this program available to the crew once we have the power to run the holodeck again.”  
“Mom said we'd probably have to shut it down.”  
“Luckily only temporarily. Your mom and Neelix were really worried when you were stuck in here alone, I'm afraid I can't authorize a drain on power and a potential danger to the crew right now.”  
“Can I please stay here until the half hour is over?”  
“Only if I can stay, too.” Janeway winked, Naomi smiled.  
“Thank you, Captain.” 

**Author's Note:**

> This honestly happened because I went "With all the times the holodeck malfunctions and people almost die, I would play a nice safe program, where nothing could go wrong even with safeties off. Like puppies."


End file.
